PhD Defense Ms. Z.N. Huwaë, MA

Summary

People can differ in how they respond to
everyday situations. For example, when treated unfairly by someone, some people
may express their anger and find it difficult to forgive the person who
offended them. Others, however, may suppress this negative feeling and forgive
the offender. People can also differ in their motives to forgive the offender.

These variations in how people respond to the same situation can - at least in
part - be explained by their cultural background. An often used framework to
understand cross-cultural differences in how people feel, think and behave in
social situations is that of individualism-collectivism (IC). Individualism
involves cultures in which ties between individuals are relatively loose and
the interests of the individual often prevail over the interests of the group.
Collectivism, by contrast, refers to cultures in which people are integrated
into strong cohesive groups and the interests of the groups generally prevail
over the interests of the individual. Yet, many researchers have challenged
some of this framework’s prime assumptions and its usefulness as a universal
model.

This dissertation examined the usefulness of the IC-framework by
examining how people from individualistic and collectivistic cultures regulate
their emotions during social interactions and respond to transgressions in
various settings with various people. For this, we used a combination of
methods (daily diary, experiment, recall, scenario). Our samples included
participants with more individualistic backgrounds (Dutch) and more
collectivistic backgrounds (Chinese, Indonesian). We also conducted two studies
with descendants from Indonesian immigrants (Moluccans) in the Netherlands.

This dissertation showed that, even though participants from individualistic
and collectivistic cultures differed in how they suppressed emotions and
responded to transgressions, their responses also depended upon how close they
were with those who were present or involved. We also found that personal
concerns can be important too in collectivistic cultures and that in
individualistic cultures relational concerns can also matter when forgiving
someone. In addition, our findings showed that group interest did not prevail
over personal interest among participants with collectivistic backgrounds
following transgressions.

As such, our findings present a nuanced view on
characterizing cultures as either individualistic or collectivistic. More
research is recommended to understand the interplay between individualistic and
collectivistic values behind people’s responses to all kinds of situations with
more and diverse samples. Furthermore, our findings with regard to the
Moluccans in the Netherlands suggest that the longer immigrants with
collectivistic backgrounds live in an individualistic society, the more their
responses may become similar to members of the host society.